


Chamomile, Oh Chamomile

by Control_Room



Series: Charlotte, Joey, and... Joey? [3]
Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Bonding, Family, Father-Son Relationship, Fluff, Gen, Insomnia, Stream of Consciousness, prose, thought
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-11
Updated: 2019-12-11
Packaged: 2021-02-18 12:49:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21761146
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Control_Room/pseuds/Control_Room
Summary: They can't sleep.
Relationships: Joey Drew & Joey Drew
Series: Charlotte, Joey, and... Joey? [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1568356
Comments: 5
Kudos: 6





	Chamomile, Oh Chamomile

**Author's Note:**

  * For [BallofYarn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/BallofYarn/gifts).



Jekyll stared at the rain pattering down the windows, as each droplet slowly trailed down, all dimly sparkling with the candle Jekyll had light instead of the electric light, attempting to avoid waking anyone else up. The rain’s quiet tip tapping kept him company.

Windows. Rain.

Once normal things, now all so… surreal, nigh magical.

He had gotten used to wood and ink.

The natural world had become so very unnatural to him now.

Lightning illuminated him, thunder boomed across the land, Jekyll feeling it reverberate deep in his chest, a song of the world shaking his breath.

He gripped his mug of tea a little tighter. The smell of the chamomile flowers within the heated drink reached his nose, but the melatonin producing liquid had yet to fulfil its purpose to help him fall into the temporary cradle of death we all call sleep.

He sipped, and another crack of lightning streaked through the sky.

Everything around just so magical.

His breath was snatched away by the sight, the flash still glinting in his own eyes. The clock chimed three in the morning, however, it did so just as the thunder rumbled through the atmosphere, making Jekyll almost miss the mechanically announced time. He sighed. Just another few hours, and there he would be, sleeping away the day and silently bearing though each night, each night alone. It seemed to him that he was just. Always alone.

And that was the way it was supposed to be. Criminals should be kept away, cunning madmen locked into their own screaming minds.

He welcomed his punishment with a lowered head and silent acceptance. It was the way it would be. He, alone, and awake.

Not this time, though.

Jekyll hardly noticed the nearly silent footsteps in the hallway. But he did notice when he -

“O-oh, h-hey, Doc, Doctor Jekyll,” Johan greeted him with his natural and usual stutter, but… it seemed worse than usual to the older man. “D-don’t y-ya think you should be, be gettin’ s-some rest? It’s p-pretty late, you know.”

“I know,” Jekyll admitted, rubbing his ring, thinking of the last time he saw Charlotte, about two weeks before then. The world around him was so magical and whimsical, why did he ever bother with Hyde? Was there a point? He just felt so very foolish now. Jekyll felt a tap on his shoulder, and he looked to Johan, who was looking at him with concern, and so much care. No, not care. Love. It made Jekyll’s heart ache to see the young man so admire him, but he felt his heart swell with love as well. Goodness, how he cared for him! “Did you say something, sunshine?”

The nickname escaped him before he could stop it, but it seemed Johan hardly noticed, though his brows knit. He thought that Jekyll was thinking of Mary Jane or Ivy as he said the nickname, not Johan, and that he was merely an intruder into the bi eye colored man’s life.

“Y-yeah, I asked if you’re havin’, havin’ in-insomnia,” Johan quietly repeated for him. He looked out to the rain as well, and Jekyll followed his gaze, both of them enraptured in the wondrous water cycle before them. Lightning, thunder, darkness, silence. Repeat. Rain gently beating at the glass windows all the while. A few relapses into this, and Johan stirred, beginning to talk once again in a near monotone, as though he was not fully aware of the words coming out from his lips, “I have it a lot, too. Insomnia. Keepin’ me u-up past the first chirps of th-the wee birds, and then again until the next sunrise… sorry. D-didn’t mean to, uh, to bring all of that, that up. J-just… tired. Yeah. I’m just. Really really. T-tired.”

“It’s okay, kid,” Jekyll assure him, getting up to refill his cup of tea. “Do you want some tea? It sometimes helps.”

“But most of the time doesn’t,” Johan wryly remarked in a murmur. “If only all the rumored cures worked for all our ailments, there would be no sickness in the world. Alas, if only, if only.”

Jekyll stared at Johan.

The young man hardly seemed to notice the prose flowing from his lips, stutterless and clear.

“If only we lived forever, in the arms of those we love,” Johan sighed once more, looking out to the rain wistfully. A gale of wind seemed to punctuate his words. He looked at Jekyll, and took his mug from out of his hand, and went to refill it himself. “Chamomile, oh chamomile, flower of sleep, what secrets are in your blossoms? What myths do you hide?”

Johan led the silent Jekyll to his room by his hand, the honey alike smell of the tea lulling the older man into a dreamlike state. Johan helped him into bed, taking off his shoes with ease and setting them next to the bed with meticulous care, then returning to Jekyll and tucking the blanket around him firmly, running a hand over his brow, smoothing wrinkles gently, slim, calloused, and scarred fingers running through Jekyll’s fringe. The rain pattered on beyond them, the window of Jekyll’s room not lit by anything, the candle long extinguished. 

Johan leaned close to Jekyll, his head above the older man’s, an awkward hug of their minds. He vibrated gently, and Jekyll gave a quiet hum in an easy reply.

Talking to Johan was always easy for him. He did not even have to say anything! And yet, the younger man was always there for him, no matter what. He hardly had to say Johan’s name, and he would barrel through obstacles and dimensions to reach him.

“You a-alright, da?” Johan asked. Jekyll answered, “Yes, of course, why?”

“You’re crying….”

Jekyll touched his cheek and found Johan’s observation to be correct. The corners of his eyes crinkled as he smiled.

“Oh, I’m alright Johan, no need to worry.”

“Y-you sure?”

“Yes. I just love you, son.”

“Love you too, pap.”


End file.
